Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Kong: Skull Island’ Climbs to the Top of the Charts

While the giant ape in Kong: Skull Islandmay not climb any New York skyscrapers this time around, he certainly did climb the box office charts. The latest Warner Bros. monster movie shot all the way to the top spot in its opening weekend, with Loganand the surprising hit Get Outboth shifting one spot down to accommodate the King. Here are the projected numbers as of Sunday afternoon:

Film

Weekend

Per Screen

1

Kong: Skull Island

$61,015,000

$15,865

$61,015,000

2

Logan

$37,850,000 (-57%)

$9,297

$152,656,733

3

Get Out

$21,072,600 (-25%)

$6,705

$111,054,445

4

The Shack

$10,050,000 (-37%)

$3,480

$32,268,691

5

The LEGO Batman Movie

$7,820,000 (-33%)

$2,368

$159,023,660

6

Before I Fall

$3,107,910 (-33%)

$1,325

$9,036,722

7

Hidden Figures

$2,765,000 (-27%)

$1,946

$162,865,186

8

John Wick: Chapter Two

$2,700,000 (-43%)

$1,329

$87,423,211

9

La La Land

$1,770,000 (-40%)

$1,122

$148,445,589

10

Fifty Shades Darker

$1,629,250 (-54%)

$1,088

$112,922,485

Taking first place this weekend with $61 million is Kong: Skull Island, the next movie in what Warner Bros. hopes will be the giant monster cinematic universe. While the film opened better than anticipated, it’s worth noting that Kong: Skull Island did gross about $30 million less than 2014’s Godzilladespite similar reviews and a much more impressive cast. Strong international numbers ($81 million) should keep this franchise moving forward, but I’m sure the studio would love to see a movie that blows up the box office without the need for qualifiers.

Meanwhile, Logan fell to second place with a $37 million second weekend. While Wolverine fans were surely hoping that Logan would see a more gentle decline, that 57% drop is nothing to be ashamed of, representing a smaller decrease than both The Wolverine(59%) and last year’s X-Men: Apocalypse (65%). Heck, if you’re someone who likes to watch Marvel fans duke it out, tell them that since Logan saw a smaller second weekend drop than Captain America: Civil War(59%), it must objectively be the better movie! Have fun with that statistic, internet forums of the world.

In third place with $21 million is Get Out, the little horror movie that could and a smash success for both Blumhouse and writer-director Jordan Peele. Get Out slipped past the $100 million mark this past week and is now sitting solidly at $111 million. You have to go all the way back to 2013’s The Conjuring($133 million) to find a horror movie that’s done this well at the box office, and Get Out is a pretty sure bet to pass that number in the new week or two. The hype is real; Get Out is changing the game.

The Shackcontinues to surprise at the box office, grossing $10 million and remaining a sleeper hit. This pace probably won’t be enough to crack the upper tier of faith films — those spots are solidly reserved for movies about Narnia, Jesus torture, and college professors learning that Heaven Is for Real — but it continues to outpace movies like God’s Not Dead and War Room.

The rest of the Top 10 is a pretty familiar mixture of February releases and awards show favorites from the past few months. The LEGO Batman Movieearned $7.8 million in 5th place and keeps inching its way towards a $200 mark it probably will not hit. Before I Fallcontinues to disappoint with only $3.1 million in its second weekend; that 6th place finish could tumble in a hurry.

Hidden Figures holds strong in 7th place for a third consecutive week, grossing $2.7 million and enjoying probably its last weekend as the highest-grossing movie of 2017 (The LEGO Batman Movie is inches behind with more room to maneuver). Also at $2.7 million, John Wick: Chapter Twohas its own landmark to miss: this eighth place gross puts it at $87 million total, tantalizingly close to the $100 million mark. La La Landand Fifty Shades Darkerround out the Top 10 with $1.7 and $1.6 million, respectively.

And while they’re nowhere near the top of the list, indie movie fans must be thrilled with the limited releases of both the Kristen Stewart festival favorite Personal Shopper and the French cannibal film Raw, which finished one-two respectively in per-theater average this past weekend. If that success continues, look to see both distributors slowly bump up the number of theaters for each.